Thread: CA finish driving me mad

Boiled linseed oil
Boiled linseed oil is used as a paint binder or as a wood finish on its own. Heating the oil causes it to polymerize and oxidize, making it thicker and shortening its drying time. Today, most products labeled as "boiled linseed oil" are a combination of raw linseed oil, petroleum-based solvent, and metallic dryers (catalysts to accelerate drying). The use of metallic dryers makes boiled linseed oil inedible. Some products contain only heat-treated linseed oil, without exposure to oxygen. Heat-treated linseed oil is thicker and dries very slowly. This grade of linseed oil is usually labeled as "polymerized" or "stand" oil, though some types may still be labeled as "boiled".

from the linseed oil wikki here Linseed oil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

hope thats a help.

Neal.

I must give the BLO/CA another go on a cheap pen. I bought a glass eye dropper from the chemist to make sure I only just get a drop of BLO on the material. I must admit I couldn't contro the volume at the first attempt. This might help but time will tell. At the moment I have started polishing some pens with CA again now that the bottles of accelerator have arrived.

Well I didn't give up completely, had another go today and the pen ended up duller than it was when I started, this is pretty bloody frustrating. I think that is it for timber for me, I waste a lot of blanks and tubes through large bits breaking off when I'm turning anyway so I think I will just stick to acrylic from now on I get much better results with far less effort and frustration, this shouldn't be a chore.

Originally Posted by Jack.Tar

Well I didn't give up completely, had another go today and the pen ended up duller than it was when I started, this is pretty bloody frustrating. I think that is it for timber for me, I waste a lot of blanks and tubes through large bits breaking off when I'm turning anyway so I think I will just stick to acrylic from now on I get much better results with far less effort and frustration, this shouldn't be a chore.

Thats a bit sad as you are having success with acrylics ,which can be hard to turn ,but easy to finish . As opposed to most woods are easily turned ,but the finishing is sometimes more challenging, seems you might need some hands on experience with someone close enough to get you on the right track ,took me over a year to learn to use a skew for anything other than a scraper and even then someone had to show me . Same with CA wasn't till I got together with Neil (dai Sensei) that I started to get consistently good results ,It is definately another string to your bow ,especially for some more difficult woods like spalteds and burls ,can be used to highlight the beauty or hold things together . Bits breaking off wood when turning is not that uncommon, how you get over that can be a real challenge at times,especially if you can't find the bits to glue back together hehe,
Have a break if you need to and try again some time later on when you feel the time is right to try again.no good beating yourself up for little reward cheers ~ John

Jack

Try using thin CA with Mitre Fix accelerator until you get used to the finish. It's easy to stuff up a couple of blanks with that too if the paper towel begins to stick of the CA forms ridges, but you can sand off the mistakes using a 600 grit and then continue to apply the CA for a perfect finish with MM and wax. When you are happy with those pens, try the BLO and other methods.

But my advice for what it is worth is to get one method working first so you are happy with it and then experiment with other methods using cheap pen kits.

I moved between too many methods when I started out and ended up buggering up most methods and a lot of pen kits. Now I use CA and mitrefix or alternatively a Nitro dip which is also good.

Find an experienced pen turner from here who is living in your area and see if you can get some tips in person from them. It has worked wonders for me. I was doing so many things wrong that I thought were right for me but they accounted for the loss of blanks I didn't need to lose.

Mate I have so much to learn too and I am learning all the time so don't give up because of a couple of stuff ups.

Greg

Originally Posted by Jack.Tar

Well I didn't give up completely, had another go today and the pen ended up duller than it was when I started, this is pretty bloody frustrating. I think that is it for timber for me, I waste a lot of blanks and tubes through large bits breaking off when I'm turning anyway so I think I will just stick to acrylic from now on I get much better results with far less effort and frustration, this shouldn't be a chore.

I did a pen today and got the same result you were getting, The white stuff. Didn't use the BLO on the paper towel first this time. And your right I got dull, dull dull on the first 3 laters. I wound up putting the CA (thin) on and stopping the lathe and leaving my light on it until it went off properly. Then I started the lather for the next layer. This seemed to reduce the white coating a fair bit. The only thing that actually fixed it was using the micromesh to get to a smooth gloss finish. But I don't think it was any better than a 600 grit sand and a wax.

Originally Posted by _fly_

I did a pen today and got the same result you were getting, The white stuff. Didn't use the BLO on the paper towel first this time. And your right I got dull, dull dull on the first 3 laters. I wound up putting the CA (thin) on and stopping the lathe and leaving my light on it until it went off properly. Then I started the lather for the next layer. This seemed to reduce the white coating a fair bit. The only thing that actually fixed it was using the micromesh to get to a smooth gloss finish. But I don't think it was any better than a 600 grit sand and a wax.

One way you can try a CA finnish is drip thin ca on a qtip 5 or 6 drops and make a pass back and forth.
Use 5 qtips 10 coats
800 wet/dry sand wet
MM all grits wet
Polish

What are qtips please?

Cotton Buds
Cheers
Tony

Jeez Jack, watch this clip, and copy every sequence. I nailed it from day one, and I'm a 'Meat Head', ha ha. How I apply 20 thin coats of CA as a finish « TimberBits Blog
The ONLY thing I do differently NOW from David, is that I do not use paper towel as an applicator, I use Toilet paper as I find it gives a smoother / finer coverage.

Pariss.
Is that scented toot paper.

Is it the double layer or do you risk a break through with the single layer

One way you can try a CA finnish is drip thin ca on a qtip 5 or 6 drops and make a pass back and forth.
Use 5 qtips 10 coats
800 wet/dry sand wet
MM all grits wet
Polish

Do most use thin or medium Ca. The 2 buck junk or the expensive carbatec stuff.
Do you get what you pay for??

qballizhere Do I let the ca dry between applications or use accelerator?
Pariss: this is the method I tried? but I did not use accelerator( don't know why as I have some) I also used thin CA (also silly seeing I have medium). I think I didn't use accel as I was using thin.

OK I'll try again again with medium and accel.

OK, Another question, I saw somewhere, think it was youtube that accelerator was nothing more than water and Bi-Carb (think it was 1 teaspoon into a pint of water). Has anyone else seen this or tried it.

There are plenty of posts on here about trying all the different methods to replace Mitre Fix. I have not been able to use any of them successfully so far. That is probably because I am still a novice. But personally, I don't want to stuff around and waste time and blanks with new fangled ideas that aren't an instant success. So, like Louie the Fly, "If you're on a good think stick to it". No, I am not a salesman for Mitre Fix but I see so much time and money wasted on the forum by people trying to save a few cents in an alternative to a proven product. Buy it from the manufacturers direct for around $15 a can! Check the internet and you will find them.

As an aside I noticed the post about using cotton wool rather than paper towel or plastic. Best of luck Thin CA has a tendency to go off as you are rubbing it across the blank to avoid the ripple pool effect. Cotton wool would end up making the blank look like Fairy Floss if the CA got tacky It's bad enough when it happens to paper towel when you are not watching and worse still when the gloves stick to it. Geez - do they tear apart. (I use Ansell disposal gloves when using CA to avoid poisoning over a prolonged period but mainly to stop my fingers sticking together).

Best of luck with the trials